CMGI Dis-Engages

Internet investor CMGI has pulled its offer to buy Engage and is distancing itself from the troubled online ad technology firm.

“Senior management of Engage and CMGI could not reach a consensus as to the execution of the business strategy for Engage,” CMGI CFO Thomas Oberdorf
said in a statement issued late Friday.

A spokesman for Engage would not elaborate on the dispute and said the company was “investigating other sources of financing.”

CMGI currently holds approximately 148 million shares of common stock of Engage, good for 75.5 percent of the company. Both companies are based in Andover,
Mass., and have struggled mightily in the last year, enduring layoffs, restructuring and management shakeups.

Some insiders speculated CMGI would merge the embattled online ad player with another one of its marketing properties.

In addition to the scuttled deal, David S. Wetherell and George A. McMillan, CMGI’s chairman and CEO respectively, resigned their seats on Engage’s board of
directors, effective immediately.

Engage said he was unsure of the timetable for filling the board vacancies.